07:55am   Nice quiet day at home for most of today so if I take any trades I will detail them below.

Market Update: U.S. equity markets had their worst day of 2017 yesterday, they fell over 1% with banking shares providing the largest losses (Bank Of America fell 5.8%) on concerns that the Federal Reserve may not raise rates as quickly this year as was first expected. There are also worries that President Trump’s policy promises may not materialise as quick was first thought – healthcare and tax reforms are major subjects where voters want to see action after promises made during the election run-up.

This negative sentiment spilled over to the Asian trading session last night and most indices closed in negative territory. The Japanese Nikkei 225 fell on Yen strength and also reports that North Korea had a failed missile test which could have been aimed at Japan. This morning’s European session is getting underway with German, French and British equity markets in a negative mood so far.

Gold is benefiting from the sell-off in equity markets and is rising back towards the $1263 resistance level – it jumped $9.80 in a high volume session yesterday and is currently trading at $1247.44.  Crude oil is still under pressure from global over production and it fell 92 cents during Tuesday’s trading session and we will have confirmation of the U.S. stock situation this afternoon with the Crude Oil Inventories.

Trading Diary:

09:50am    Nothing to see on my collection of favourite charts so I am off for a ‘bracing’ cycle ride for an hour or so.

11:25am   Just entered a ‘short’ position on my S&P-500 chart, unusually it’s a Magic-Line pattern and my stop loss is 14 pips.  If you do not have the instructions for this simple trading system, you can download the manual free of charge ON THIS PAGE

11:45am    My S&P-500 chart is quite ‘jumpy’ so I have taken the opportunity to come out of the position as it touched a very minor support level at 2341.40 which has given me a quick profit of +21 pips.  There was a ‘short’ opportunity on the Brent Crude chart a few minutes ago but I will sit on my hands for the time being as the Crude Oil Inventories are due out soon.

12:15am    Out for an early lunch with some fellow traders – more chart watching this afternoon.

15:20pm    I have been back home for 30 minutes or so but no trading opportunities have revealed themselves so I am switching off my screens for the day – back early tomorrow morning.